Who could ever imagine, let alone bring together Katy Perry, Anthony Hegarty, Kanye West, Keith Richards, David Byrne and Justin Bieber in the same room? The answer? An absurdly well-connected New York socialite — or in our case, photographer and music-video director Francesco Carrozzini. An established photographer who works for some of the world’s leading magazines, Carrozzini is also the man behind many well-known music videos from artists such as Lana del Rey, Beyoncé and Sia. What he is best known for however is his well-crafted portrait photography — a selection of which is currently on display at Earth Gallery in Paris, as part of the artist’s first solo show in the city.

Including evocative and sometimes intimate portraits of some of the world’s most popular musical artists, the exhibition reveals the important role music plays in Carrozzini’s career. "Music is integral to every aspect of my artistic process” he admits in an artist’s statement he released on the occasion of his Earth Gallery show; “through photography, I explored different ways to translate these musician's work into imagery.” Indeed, Carrozzini’s images, some of which have never been presented to the public before, manage to capture the essence and mood of each artist’s work, all the while revealing different degrees of trust and friendship between the photographer and his subjects.